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1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to work order management systems and, more particularly, to processes and systems for automatically creating maintenance reports for management activities and for governmental regulators.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most residential and business telephone customers are connected to telephone systems by copper cables and wires. These copper cables are the familiar one or more telephone lines running throughout nearly every home in the United States. Because copper cable and wire connects each home, and many businesses, to the telephone system, the Public Switched Telephone Network is composed of billions of copper cables and wires. Each of these copper cables must be maintained to provide superior telephone service to the customer.
Yet maintaining these copper cables and wires is an extraordinary task. The Public Switched Telephone Network, with its millions of copper cables and wires, may receive hundreds of maintenance calls per day. These maintenance calls, in turn, may result in hundreds of maintenance work orders. These hundreds of daily maintenance calls, and the resultant work orders, must be efficiently managed to prevent maintenance costs from eroding profits. These hundreds of daily maintenance calls, and work orders, must also be efficiently managed to ensure customers receive a quick response and resolution to their communication problems.
Because hundreds of work orders are generated each day, managers and governmental regulators receive maintenance reports detailing these work orders. These maintenance reports generally describe the customer""s complaint, what maintenance is required to resolve the complaint, when a work order was created to resolve the complaint, and, finally, the status of the work order. Managers and governmental regulators then use these maintenance reports to monitor performance, costs, and customer satisfaction/service efforts.
These maintenance reports, however, are often inaccurate. The maintenance reports are frequently generated using old, out-of-date information. The maintenance report, for example, may indicate a cable repair is required, when the latest information indicates no facility is actually available. The maintenance report could also indicate a work order has yet to be assigned and dispatched, when, in fact, a technician has already made the repair and closed the work order. Because these maintenance reports are often constructed from inaccurate, aged information, managers and regulators have an inaccurate view of a communications system, of the status of work orders, and of customer service and satisfaction.
There is, accordingly, a need in the art for work order management systems that acquire fresh, up-to-date information, that create maintenance reports using accurate data, that accurately and quickly reflect true management and regulatory objectives and goals, and that reduce the costs of maintaining operations.
The aforementioned problems are reduced by a Reporting Manager module. The Reporting Manager module comprises processes and systems that create and generate maintenance reports using real-time, up-to-date information. Maintenance reports, therefore, more accurately reflect the condition of a communication system. Managers have a more accurate view of the performance of field technicians and of maintenance crews. Governmental regulators also have a more accurate measurement of how well customers are treated and how fast customer problems are resolved. The Reporting Manager module, therefore, helps managers attain internal performance objectives and meet, or exceed, regulatory requirements.
The Reporting Manager module improves the efficiency of reporting maintenance activities. The Reporting Manager module may automatically generate maintenance reports, at any desired time and date, with any content a person should require. If, for example, a general manager requires a monthly maintenance report detailing all cable failures, the Reporting Manager module automatically acquires the information and generates this report. If a supervisor wants a weekly report of central office failures and alarms, the Reporting Manager module automatically acquires the desired information and generates this report. The Reporting Manager module may also automatically generate any maintenance reports a federal or state government agency should require. The Reporting Manager module may, therefore, automatically generate customized reports to improve the reporting of maintenance activities.
The Reporting Manager module, additionally, may automatically communicate the maintenance reports. The Reporting Manager module communicates the maintenance report via a communications network to users, to reporting systems, and to governmental regulatory agencies. The Reporting Manager module could email a maintenance report to a user, or the maintenance report could be automatically printed at the user""s desired printer station. The Reporting Manager module could also automatically prepare a maintenance report for many reporting systems used within the telecommunications industry. The Reporting Manager module, for example, could generate maintenance reports for a Loop Cable Administration and Maintenance Operations System (LCAMOS) (more commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cPredictorxe2x80x9d), a Loop Engineering Information System (LEIS), a Loop Activity Tracking Information System (LATIS), and a Mechanized Trouble Analysis System (MTAS). The Reporting Manager module could even format a maintenance report to the reporting requirements of, for example, the Federal Communications Commission or a state/local public utilities commission. The Reporting Manager module would then communicate the formatted maintenance report along the communications network, in real-time and on-line, to a regulatory agency. Because the Reporting Manager module acquires the freshest data available, each maintenance report provides managers, users, the Federal Communications Commission, state and local utilities commissions, and others with an up-to-date, accurate picture of the communications system.